


Love on the Menu

by jdjunkie



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M, Romance, Shmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-18
Updated: 2011-11-18
Packaged: 2017-10-26 06:04:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/279558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdjunkie/pseuds/jdjunkie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack's being romantic. Daniel's suspicious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love on the Menu

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sort of companion piece to Table For Two, which is also archived here. Same restaurant but some years later.

“Deja vu.”

“Deja vu.”

Daniel smiled. It was an old game, as familiar as worn-in shoes and just as comfortable. He settled into his seat across the table from Jack, picked up the menu and read quickly, pausing only to take note of the prices.

“Still charging the earth,” Daniel said, eyebrows raising at the cost of the twice baked cheese soufflé.

“Still worth it,” Jack replied, the twinkle in his eye telling Daniel he wasn’t really referring to the food.

Daniel shook his head in affectionate exasperation. Jack could be ridiculously romantic and, though he’d never admit it, Daniel loved him for it. It was a part of Jack he hugged to himself and treasured fiercely.

“So,” Daniel began, eyes still raking the food choices, “why are we here?”

“What ... I can’t take you out for a meal now and then?”

Jack nodded to Giovanni – still here and still vaguely menacing.

“You can and you do, but dinner at Santoro’s is never just dinner at Santoro’s.”

“Are you saying I have an ulterior motive?”

“I am. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet.” He frowned. “I haven’t forgotten some vital anniversary have I?” Jack’s remarkable memory for those important milestones in their relationship still left Daniel dazed and delighted even now, when they’d been living together in Washington for seven years. Jack was retired but occasionally consulting, Daniel was occasionally lecturing and working his magic on behalf of the program behind the scenes at the Pentagon.

Before Jack could answer, Giovanni glided over to the table.  
“A pleasure to see you again, General, and you, Dr. Jackson.” He nodded to each diner in turn. “We have not seen you for some time.”

There could have been a hint of reproach in there but neither Jack nor Daniel was brave enough to call him on it.

“Just passing through from D.C. What’s good tonight?” Jack asked, smiling his best smile.

“Everything is good, General, but, if I had to choose, perhaps the poached hake fillet.”

“Thanks. I’ll bear that in mind. In the meantime, a bottle of the Veuve Clicquot Reserve, the 2004 vintage, if you’d be so kind.”

“Of course.”

Daniel swallowed. “Okay, now I’m really worried.”

Jack frowned in return. “Why?”

“Because you’ve just ordered champagne. The real McCoy champagne.”

“We’re toasting Carter. All-new Queen of the Mountain. That’s gotta be worth celebrating.”

“It is. She’s more than earned it.”

“I sense an inevitable Jackson but.”

“But that’s not it.”

Giovanni arrived with the champagne and expertly dispensed two cut glass flutes before placing the bottle in the ice bucket beside the table.

“To Carter,” Jack said, raising his glass.

“To Sam,” Daniel responded, warily.

They sipped, closing their eyes in deep appreciation of the costly fizzy stuff.

“You should have invited Sam to come with us,” Daniel said, his attention returning to the menu.

“She’s otherwise engaged. Hitting the town with Mitchell.”  
Daniel looked thoughtful. “You think there’s maybe something ... going on there?”

“I think. But you should know. I thought you talked about stuff.”

“We do talk. Just not about that ... stuff.”

Jack took a long drink from his glass. “Your conversations about quarks and striations must be just so damned riveting.”

Daniel gave him the look over the top of the menu. “Have you decided yet?”

“About the hake?”

“About whether you’re going to tell me what this is about?” Daniel threw an all-encompassing gaze at the rest of the room. The restaurant was full. The place hadn’t changed a bit – still understatedly elegant and reassuringly expensive. The gentle buzz of conversation and muted ambient jazz provided a pleasant backdrop.

“You have a highly suspicious nature Dr. Jackson.”

“With good reason,” Daniel said, closing the menu and placing it on the fine china plate. Giovanni took that as his signal and appeared with his notepad at the ready.

“I’ll have the ham hock terrine and the hake,” Jack said.

“Is the hake served with a cream-based sauce?” Daniel asked.  
“Daniel?”

“Jack?”

“No cream. You know what the doctor said,” Daniel warned.

“It’s one dish, Daniel. I’m a good boy the rest of the time, god help me. And it’s poached.”

“I’m only thinking of your arteries.”

“One. Dish.”

“It only takes one heart attack.”

Giovanni’s eyes flicked from one man to the other in quick succession. It was anybody’s guess what he was making of the conversation.

“Oh for ... Giovanni. ... is there a cream element to the dish?”

“No, sir, but the fish is served with buttered corn and shrimps.”

Jack raised an “aht” finger as Daniel started to protest. “I like living life on the edge. I’ll take the risk. Hake it is.”

Daniel sighed. He refused to be chagrined. Jack was in pretty good shape and his last health check had ticked virtually all the boxes for a man of his age, but he’d been told to cut down on the dairy. Someone had to police Jack’s diet. Besides, he wanted him around for a lot longer yet. They had so much they still wanted to do.

“And for you, Dr. Jackson?”

“Pan fired scallops and the pork belly confit.”

A sharp intake of breath came from Jack’s side of the table, along with a side order of payback. “Pork belly, Daniel?”

“The fat is essential to the flavor. I promise I’ll be good for the rest of the week.”

Giovanni kind of sniffed, then nodded at both men and departed with the menus.

Jack leaned forward conspiratorially. “God, I hope not.”

Daniel smiled then and finally began to relax. Maybe dinner was just dinner. Maybe they were here for the outstanding dining experience and nothing else. On the other hand, if Jack had arranged this meal to soft soap him into agreeing to a move to Minnesota he had another think coming. Discussions on the thorny topic had been picked up and dropped like a worthy but unloved novel for years, with no consensus and no end in sight.

“You booked us in here for the night?” Daniel took another sip of champagne.

“Sure have.”

“But we have an early flight and I thought we were staying in quarters on base.”

“We were. We’re not any more and the flight’s been put back until 3 p.m.”

“Jack ...”

“Daniel, will you just relax and enjoy. You’re making Giovanni antsy.”

Right on cue, Giovanni arrived with the terrine and scallops and all talk halted, save for the occasional “Mmmm” of appreciation for the excellent food.

Daniel closed his eyes as he placed his knife and fork on the plate. He opened them to find Jack grinning.

“What?”

“You make the most adorable moany, coming noises when you get lost in great cuisine.”

Daniel felt himself blush. Damn it. “I do not.”

“Do.”

“Not.”

“Do, too. It’s hot. I’m getting hard.”

Daniel spluttered as he drained his champagne glass and was forced to dab at his mouth with the linen napkin. “I’m sure the other diners are thrilled to hear that.”

Jack shook his head. “They’re too wrapped up in their own conversations about house prices and golf club memberships to care what I’m saying, and besides, half of them are probably hard, too. You look amazing tonight.”

Despite himself, Daniel could only smile. Jack had this ... way of saying stuff that would sound too corny were it to come from anyone else. From him, it just sounded like what was in his heart.

“Oh, this old Hugo Boss thing,” Daniel said, smiling up at Giovanni as he cleared the plates and topped off their glasses before heading for the kitchen.

“Seriously. How come you get better looking as you get older and I just get ... older?”

“Bullshit. You’re as hot now as you were in the days of fingerless gloves and mission cammo.”

The smile that lit Jack’s face lit up the room as well and made Daniel feel like the King of the World. God, this champagne was going straight to his head. He quickly drank some more.

“Not so much,” Jack said softly, “but I appreciate the gentle lie.”

“So not lying. Colonel Davis would do you. Told me so himself.”

Jack look suitably shocked. “When?”

“Just last week. Had coffee and cake in town. I was saying how hot his new boyfriend was. Colonel Mayfield ... the guy ...”

“With the tight ass and cute little cow lick, yeah, I know him.”

“Then Davis said he’d always had a thing for you.”

Jack’s shock mutated into mere surprise. “He did? I always thought he had a thing for you. That time you were in Moscow ...” Jack winced. Daniel acknowledged that things had not been easy between them at that point. Too much love and not enough words. It was a difficult combination.

Daniel leaned forward. “Nothing happened in Moscow, Jack. It could have. I read the signals pretty clearly and it would probably have been nice and comfortable and easy but ...”

“But,” Jack echoed softly, and Daniel could see in his eyes that he knew why Davis’s hand on the small of his back in that Russian hotel restaurant and the keen laughter at Daniel’s jokes were subtly but firmly ignored.

“But I’ve never been good at loving at two people at once.”

Jack’s gaze turned openly soft and loving. It was a look that Daniel found devastating every time. He felt a sudden stab of love so fierce that he feared he might say something goofily stupid. Luckily, Giovanni chose that moment to deliver the hake and pork.

More appreciative noises, very little conversation and clean plates ensued.

Giovanni opened a second bottle of champagne and, after the plates were cleared and desserts declined, Jack sat back in his chair and let out a long, satisfied sigh. “Gah,” he said, clearly resisting the urge to loosen his belt, “no room for dessert. Can’t stand the pace anymore.”

“Overeating equals heartburn equals no fun later,” Daniel said.

“There’s gonna be fun?” Jack asked, eyes twinkling.

“It’s possible. I can’t commit until I’ve checked out the mattress.”

“Who needs a mattress? There’s a wall and a bath and a shower and ...”  
“Your knees and your back and your occasional vertigo and ...”

“Ah, but your knees and back and sense of balance are just fine. It’ll work out,” Jack said, smugly. Entirely too smugly. It made Daniel edgy. That edginess ramped up to controlled terror when Jack appeared to lose the fallatus to make small talk. He futzed with their champagne glasses, folded and re-folded his napkin and rearranged the condiments as if were playing a solo chess game. He was licking his lips, too, a sure sign of nerves.

“Jack?” Daniel asked, somewhat fearfully.

“Daniel?”

“Have we, at this advanced stage of our relationship, suddenly run out of things to say each other? Have we finally become that old couple you see in restaurants who eat in silence because they have absolutely nothing new to talk about?”

“Erm ...” Jack looked momentarily horrified, then countered with, “How ‘bout those Cubs, eh?”

Daniel pursed his lips. This was getting serious. Jack was never, ever lost for words. Time for a pre-emptive strike.

“Look, Jack ... you know I love you, but the answer’s got to be no.”

Jack’s face was a touching picture of shock and disappointment. “But ...”

“The timing isn’t right. I wouldn’t feel comfortable about it. I know it’s what you want but I’m just not ready.”

“You’re not?” Crestfallen.

“I’m sorry. Really. This doesn’t ... change things, does it?”

“No ... no, of course not,” Jack said, quietly, but the sadness in his eyes cut Daniel to the bone. “I just ... I thought you were ready. I’ve been ready for a while. I thought you were, too.”

Crap. This wasn’t the place for a heart to heart. Maybe they should order some coffee for their room and finally have this out.

“Jack, Minnesota is a great place. The cabin is amazing for vacations but I’m just not ...”

Jack slowly leaned forward resting his hands on the table. “Minnesota?”

“Yes, I mean, I love the lake, your lake and the fish and the loons and the way the moonlight turns the water to silver. I love all that and I love you ...”

“Minnesota.” Jack repeated the word more slowly.

“Minnesota,” Daniel replied, feeling as though he definitely wasn’t getting something here.

“You think I’m asking you to move to Minnesota. With me.”

Daniel blinked a couple of times to give himself time to think. “Um, yes.”

“No.”

“No?” Daniel felt nothing but guilt at the relief that coursed through him.

“No.”

Daniel grinned, embarrassed that he’d got the wrong end of the stick. “Not Minnesota.”

“Not Minnesota,” Jack confirmed.

“Wow, that’s ... that’s a relief. Not that we can’t talk about this as a plan for the future. Don’t think I’m ruling it out forever. I just want to travel and take my work for the program to its logical conclusion.” Relief was making him babble.

“I was going to ask you to marry me.”

Words -- those things that Daniel lived and sometimes died by -- deserted him. They just upped and left the building. The pleasant background sound of the jazz and conversation became a roaring torrent of sound before it eventually receded, leaving only the sound of Daniel’s silence.

Across the table, an adorably nervous Jack sat with his hands clasped. They were shaking, Daniel noted distantly. He raised his eyes to Jack’s, reading an anxiety Jack was trying so hard but failing to mask. But he’d never been able to hide from Daniel.

“Damn,” Jack whispered, shaking his head a little. “I’ve blown it, haven’t I?”

“Yes,” Daniel said, breathless.

“It’s okay,” Jack said, his tone reassuring and soft, “we don’t have to. It’s a dumb idea. Why rock the boat? Forget I said anything.”

Jack was saying words but Daniel only heard them as random sounds.

“I said ... ‘yes’”. He actually couldn’t say any more than that, so he reached across the table and placed his hands on top of Jack’s, squeezing by way of apology for his lack of words.

“You mean...” Jack’s smile spread across his face as Daniel’s response finally sank in.

“I mean yes. Yes I’ll marry you.”

“I thought,” Jack huffed, “I thought you were saying ...”

“I know what you thought. We really fail at this communication thing sometimes,” Daniel said, feeling his own hands shaking but the rest of him dancing in delight at what was happening.

Married. Wow.

“Yeah,” Jack said, laughing. “We do.” He sighed. “Luckily, we can get stuff right, too.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

Daniel found himself gazing into Jack’s eyes and holding his hands in the middle of a crowded restaurant, and he didn’t care one bit because Jack had asked him to marry him.  
A discreet cough from behind Daniel’s right shoulder brought him back to earth with a bump.

“Is everything all right gentlemen?” Giovanni was smiling broadly.

“Couldn’t be better,” Jack said, beaming his best and brightest grin. “Meet my husband-to-be.”

Giovanni’s grin was wider than Jack’s. “Many congratulations. Another bottle of champagne, courtesy of Santoro and I.”

Jack gave Giovanni a searching look. “You and ...?”

“Fifteen years last December 12.”

Wow. It really was a night for surprises.

“That would be great. Thank you,” Jack said.

As Giovanni slipped away, Jack leaned towards Daniel. “I really did have an ulterior motive,” he said, without a hint of apology.

“I was right to be suspicious.” Then it was Daniel’s turn to wince. “About Minnesota ...”

“That’s okay. Plenty of time to discuss that. After the honeymoon.”

“Honeymoon?”

“A cottage in the Yorkshire Dales, in England. Log fires, village pub, all that history ...”

Daniel licked his lips. “That mattress we talked about? It’s just right. Wanna go check it out?”

“Thought you’d never ask ... Giovanni ... the check ...”


End file.
